Paul Lynde - A Biography (5 page)

Hoy and Sylvia had a strong marriage. Nancy said, “Grandma and Grandpa were very much in love right up until they died.” According to Paul, his dad worshipped his mom. Finding that kind of love would become a part of his lifelong quests.

Chapter 2

“Can you see me as a football player?…Now that’s acting.”

Paul Lynde

Paul had met Marilyn Surlas when he was in the eighth grade, and according to Marilyn, he fell in love with her after she had given him a maple sugarman confection to eat. They dated on and off through junior high and high school. “Paul had a great sense of humor,” she recalled. He enjoyed her similar sense of humor as well, and they were always making each other laugh. Marilyn was Protestant and belonged to an Episcopal church, which she attended regularly with her family. According to Marilyn, though Paul was Methodist, he switched religions because of her. When he was asked the name of his new church, he said, “It’s called St. Paul’s, named after me.”

The young man was quite shy and more serious when he was alone with his girl, but did not appear that way when he was surrounded by their friends. He amused the gang with his wicked wit at Hecklers Drug store, after school, where they went for shakes and soda.

“Paul was funny, smart, and wonderful,” Marilyn said. From the age of fourteen and right through high school, Paul thought they would marry. Marilyn was not as serious as her boyfriend was about their relationship. Later, Paul told the
Sarasota Herald Tribune
that he blamed his weight, “It was the ridiculous way I looked,” he said. For Paul though, she would be the one he would refer to all his life as the one he wanted to marry. “She was an obsession,” he said.

Paul never forgot his first love: acting. And in 1942, he took part in Mount Vernon High School’s production of
Mr. and Mrs. North.
He played Buono, and he truly loved being on stage. It was under those lights that he felt noticed, not for his size but for his talent. By his senior year, Paul had become quite popular and continued acting in school plays, which were directed by Ruth Druxall. She saw promise in his acting ability and had several discussions with her student about his desire to continue acting after high school. She encouraged him to consider attending Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, where she had attended.

As the school year came to a close, the senior made up his mind to follow her advice and pursue his dreams. He would have to tell his father though, who did not think acting was a real career. “I was afraid of my father, but I could get anything I wanted to from my mother,” Paul said. His dad couldn’t understand his son’s passion for acting and he tried to talk sense into him about a real future, like taking over his store one day. Paul pleaded with his mom; he just had to go to Northwestern University, it was the best drama school in the country. When Sylvia realized just how serious her son was about this, she talked her husband into paying for his college tuition.

In the fall of 1944, Paul stepped on the same campus that Academy Award-winners Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal were walking on. Charlton Heston was there on a drama scholarship and would later win several academy awards, including one for best actor in
Ben-Hur.
Patricia Neal was a sophomore and had just been crowned syllabus queen in Northwestern’s all-campus beauty pageant. She would go on to win many awards, including her first Oscar just ten years after she left Northwestern, for her role in
Hud.
Paul was just as determined to make his mark in the acting world as Charleston and Patricia were.

The freshman still enjoyed singing, and he sang in Northwestern’s a cappella choir. He also took a course in “Introduction to Oral Interpretation.” The first assignment was for the students to write a speech and recite it for the class. Paul went back to his room and feverishly wrote a lengthy monologue about a subject no other student would dare to discuss. When it was his turn to speak, the next day, he began by addressing the class as if he was the health inspector for the school. His topic: sexual relations. “Point number one: sexual troubles begin in the home…” he announced. His professor, Dr. Lee, stood there listening with her mouth wide open, but moments later, she joined the rest of the students, who were falling off their chairs, laughing. When the class was dismissed, the students busted through the classroom doors and ran to tell their friends of the hilarious guy they just heard. By the next day, just about every student on campus knew his name.

Though Paul’s speech was quite comical, he was really looking forward to his drama class to do serious acting. When he was asked to recite from Macbeth, he opened his mouth, but before he could finish the line, the class was screaming with laughter. Paul continued, but the laughter only increased. Somehow the sight of this 260-pound young man with his campy, nasally, thick Ohioan accent reading Shakespeare, just made the students howl. The director, Claudia Webster, had to stop her student in order to keep the class under control. She told him he would have to read for her in her office. She just looked at him and said, “You’ll be perfect as the lead, in the
Male Animal.”
Paul was such a hit as Wally, the football player, and he later said, “Can you see me as a football player?…Now
that’s
acting!”

At Northwestern, Paul hung out with three special classmates who would become his lifelong friends. The first one he met was Jan Steinkirshner, who later married and became Jan Forbes. According to Jan, she had first met Paul on campus after a student had approached her and asked her if her last name was Lynde. She said no. “Well there’s a guy here who looks and talks just like you,” the student told her.

About a week later, this roly-poly fellow came up to Jan and said, “Oh, so you’re the one.” It was Paul. “We both had big teeth and watery green eyes. We became fast friends.” Jan said. He called her his Tiny Twin. “He used to sit in our early morning speech class and say to me in
that
voice, ‘I’m going to be rich and f-a-a-a-a-mous.’ ” The two wrote to each other after college, and even decades later, Paul began each letter to her with: Dear Tiny.

The freshman headed to his drama class where the seats were arranged in alphabetical order. Paul’s seat was next to a young lady named Charlotte Lubotsky. Charlotte had been singing since she was a child and had hopes of becoming a serious actress. They struck up a conversation and a friendship began.

Paul then wrote skits, which he and Charlotte would act out. She later changed her last name and became known as Charlotte Rae. She would make her Broadway debut in 1952, in
Three Wishes for Jamie,
and she would become a regular on
Car 54, Where Are You?
She was nominated for several Emmys, including one for her dramatic role in
Queen of the Stardust Ballroom,
and also made many television appearances. She is probably best remembered for her role as Mrs. Garret, the housemother, in the television show
The Facts of Life.

Jan was in her sophomore year when she met her roommate, who would become a lifelong friend to the trio. Her name was Cloris Leachman. Jan introduced Cloris to Charlotte and Paul; instantly there was chemistry between them. The hopeful actors created harmony at the campus piano, where they made up silly songs and laughed as they sang them. The other students were so entertained watching them and couldn’t wait to see what they were working on next. Cloris and Paul were in a play, The
Doctor in Spite of Himself.
“I had a small part and Paul had the lead and he was just hysterical,” Cloris said. As their friendship grew so did their acting skills. Years later, Cloris would win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the
Last Picture Show
and also eight prime time Emmys. She played Phyllis in the
Mary Tyler Moore Show
and starred in a spin-off from that show:
Phyllis.
In Mel Brook’s
Young Frankenstein,
she played Frau
Blücher,
and she acted in many other significant films. Cloris is still acting today and can be seen on the sitcom
Raising Hope.

During those years at college, Paul wrote many letters to his high school girlfriend. According to Marilyn, some of his letters were hilarious. She had a shoebox filled with them. He would also write sweet letters and ask her to visit him, but Marilyn never did. He stayed loyal to her and did not date anyone throughout college.

Paul joined a fraternity, The Phi Kappa Sigma, and he would often perform for his brothers. According to authors, Joe Florenski and Steve Wilson of
Center Square,
he played a large Scarlet O’Hara in a satire of
Gone with the Wind.
In one scene, Paul was gobbling down a smorgasbord of eats of all sorts and declared, “As God is my witness; I’ll never be hungry again.”

For a short time, Paul worked on the weekends at the Toddle House, a diner-style restaurant in Evansville. Cloris and Jan came by often. “He used to serve us the greatest potatoes and give us food for free,” Cloris recalled. Paul was so popular that herds of his fellow students would come in to eat during his shift. The restaurant had an honor system: Paul was supposed to drop the check in a box for each table that he served, but no matter what his friends and fellow students ordered, he only charged everyone seven cents. He wondered how the establishment never figured out why they made the least amount of money when it was the most crowded.

Back on campus, Paul continued socializing and entertaining. His humor was becoming more biting, which he referred to as sadistic satire, and the students loved it. He appreciated their admiration so much that he began skipping classes, just to entertain them.

Paul and Charlotte won roles in the annual Woman’s Athletic Association and the Men’s Union, known as Waa-Mu. In these off-campus productions, Northwestern students write, perform, and present a musical. Paul helped write some of the skits and lyrics for the show. He and Charlotte ruled the stage during their years together there and were considered Waa-Mu’s favorites. Both actors were there to become serious actors, and when the two of them were on stage together, there was never a dry eye in the house — from laughing. Charlotte would say her lines in a way that made those in the auditorium explode with laughter. Then, a very large Paul would speak, adding twisted, comical faces. He had an almost vicious type of humor that once caught on caused another outbreak of hysteria. They were so famous on campus that they became known as “Lubotsky and Lynde.” They were regularly interviewed for the campus newspaper,
Daily Northwestern,
by Glenn Church, and one time Charlotte told the paper that when audiences grew to understand Paul’s humor, he would become famous. Paul told the same reporter that Charlotte illuminated the stage and added, “It’s hell to play with Char, I keep thinking I’m getting the laugh only to find out that Char moved an eyelash.”

Though they were just good friends, some of the students thought they would make a good couple. In those days, if a guy wanted to make a certain girl his official girlfriend, he would pin her. One section of the school’s paper, called “Kampus Keyhole,” wrote that neither Paul nor Charlotte was pinned, but that they should be by the way they carried on together.

During one theatre production, Paul and Charlotte were performing on stage where the scene required the two to toast their glasses. Somehow, Charlotte hit Paul’s mouth with the glass and it chipped his tooth. Paul went on performing, but said it was hard for him to say his lines with the damaged done to his mouth.

According to Kevin B. Leonard, the Archivist at Northwestern, based on his close reviews of many available records, Paul Lynde was unquestionably among the most very talented, visible, hard-working, and admired Northwestern students of his era. His accomplishments, especially in theatrical productions and in the University’s Waa-Mu Show — in acting, writing, singing, staging, and organizing — were widely and eagerly anticipated, notable, polished, hilarious, reviewed, praised, and admired. With his fellow student Charlotte (Lubotsky) Rae, Lynde dominated Northwestern’s performing arts community with his talent, humor, energy, and drive.

In his last year, Paul became President of Senior Council and spoke to the seniors about their responsibilities after graduation. He said hard work and luck would be a key factor in making it as a professional actor. Paul was feeling on top of the world during his college days; then his world fell apart. His parents received the dreaded news that their son, Cordy, had been lost in the war. Paul was scared; he might never see his brother again. Hoy tried to be strong for Sylvia, who feared so much for her son that her health took a turn for the worse.

A few months later, Paul was due to graduate. It was the night before graduation, and he was just made aware that he had failed what he thought was the easiest course Northwestern offered. He joked it was something simple like, “sock folding,” which he rarely showed up for. He didn’t understand what the grade “V” meant. He asked his professor what it stood for. He replied, “visitor.” When his father, who was quite frank, called on the phone and said, ‘What the hell is V for?’ He didn’t believe his son for a second when he rattled off, “Valedictorian.”

Paul was informed he was not graduating. His mom was too ill to travel, but his dad was already in the car on his way. Paul panicked. He ran all over town the night before and again that morning, trying to find the proper authority who could save him. He finally spoke to the Student Senate who held a meeting. “So while the orchestra was playing, I was handed my cap and gown,” Paul said. “The ink was still wet on my diploma when they handed it to me, and my dad never knew.”

The relieved graduate departed Northwestern with the best actor award under his arm, and he headed for Broadway. He was quite confident that he would become a star overnight. His delusions of grandeur were about to be shattered. The city would attempt to devour him and test his soul just to see how determined he really was to become rich and famous.